4.10 After School Special This was a great episode of The Vampire Diaries for a number of reasons. For one, it’s always nice to see the characters in high school, even if it isn’t during the day or in class. Rebekah and April have hatched a plan to get information out of the group (useful when no one seems to be talking to each other), and compels Stefan, Elena and Caroline into obeying her orders. Instead of doing any physical damage, however, she uses this power to stage an elaborate game of truth or dare, and the gang’s romantic entanglements are brought to the fore. If she wanted to torture Stefan for his games with her a few episodes ago, this was the best way to do it. Getting the shipper stuff out of the way as quickly as possible, Elena realises this week that she loves Damon, sire bond or no sire bond. Courtesy of Rebekah’s twisted (yet oh-so-fun) game, she tells Stefan in no uncertain terms that she’s no longer in love with him, but her reasons for this actually make sense for once. Stefan looks at her now like a broken toy in need of fixing, and the weird, slightly creepy, relationship with his brother is preferable at this moment in time. Heartbroken, Stefan almost pulls an Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and asks Rebekah to wipe his memories of Elena, but she refuses in order to leave him in his eternal torture. The second team is Stefan and Rebekah, who have now teamed up in an effort to find the cure first. The fact that they don’t have a hunter on tap poses a problem but their bond over shared loneliness is probably going to become a problem for the rest of the cast. We all love dark Stefan, and most of us love Rebekah, so this is the perfect way to inject some life into a flagging series that’s been far too focused on the love triangle. Caroline and Tyler will probably join this team also, so we can expect one helluva showdown in this second half of the season. The third and final corner of this story is Professor Shane, who doesn’t want the cure but wants to free the immortal that it’s buried with. The Vampire Diaries is back, and it has returned with a renewed sense of purpose that really helps to reignite excitement. It’s a little strange that there are currently no B-plots that don’t relate directly to this hunt for the cure, but the question of who will be able to use it is certainly an enticing one. Will Klaus be forced to become mortal again? Will Rebekah finally be rewarded with a normal life? Will one of the Salvatore brothers take it? We have no idea, and that leaves the rest of the season wide open. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
